San Quentin inmate transfer “serious flaws” that led to the outbreak of Covid-19, Oig report said

In a report released Monday by a California inspector general, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sent thousands of potentially COVID-19-positive prisoners to San Quentin State Prison last year. Endangered the health and safety of prisoners and prison staff.

The California Orthodontic Healthcare Service, which oversees health care within the CDCR and state prison systems, was 189 from the California Men’s Institute in Chino between May 28 and 30 last year during an outbreak of coronavirus in the facility. Transferred a prisoner.

According to the report, 67 prisoners with a variety of underlying medical conditions predisposed to serious illness were transferred to San Quentin State Prison on May 28, with 122 in May to protect them. It was sent to San Quentin on the 30th. From the outbreak in Chino.

However, the report failed to properly test prisoners before or after CDCR and CCHCS arrived in San Quentin, and did not properly isolate prisoners in active cases of the virus, cases throughout the prison. I found that I was tracking.

To date, Corcoran has confirmed 1,012 cases of coronavirus and 3 deaths, and San Quentin has confirmed 2,240 cases of coronavirus and 28 deaths.

“Our review shows that CCHCS and departmental efforts to prepare and execute transfers are seriously flawed, endangering the health and life of thousands of imprisoned people and staff. “It was,” said Inspector General Roy Wesley.

The report is intended for CCHCS to transfer medically vulnerable prisoners by the end of May 2020, eventually sloppy transfers in both San Quentin and Corcolan and subsequent outbreaks of coronavirus. Claims to have led to.

Despite being instructed by CCHCS executives to test prisoners within 4-6 days in time for that deadline, CCHCS had 189 people without coronavirus testing for two weeks until the end of May. Most of the inmates were sent to Corcoran and San Quentin. Of transfer.

According to the report, only one of the 189 prisoners was tested during that period and only three were tested two weeks before the transfer.

Instead of testing, CCHCS planned to screen all transferred prisoners for coronavirus symptoms and check their body temperature prior to transfer.

However, of the 122 prisoners sent to San Quentin, 55 received a medical examination more than 6 hours before leaving Chino Prison, including those screened 25 hours ago.

In addition, investigators at the Inspector General’s office interviewed 56 prisoners transferred to two prisons. Twenty-two of them said the staff did not measure their temperature, according to the report.

“With such outdated test results, prisons had no way of knowing if any of them were infected with the virus,” Wesley said in a report. “This risk has been enhanced by considering the overall basis of the transfer. Imprisoned people are vulnerable to COVID-19 disease and are experiencing significant outbreaks of COVID-19 in prisons. I live. “

In a May 27 email to medical executives at the California Institute for Men, prison nurses pointed out that some of the inmates being transferred had not been examined since May 1. I asked if the facility had previous inspection criteria to meet. transfer.

The executive simply replied, “I won’t re-swab.”

After arriving in San Quentin, 15 prisoners were reportedly virus-positive, nine of whom were on the same bus on an 11-hour trip. Of the 122 people transferred to prison, 91 will eventually be positive.

The report also revealed that CCHCS executives are pressing medical staff to increase the number of passengers on each transfer bus from 19 to 25 and reduce the space between passengers on each bus. ..

The San Quentin staff had little advanced knowledge of the CCHCS plan. The prison director received information about the scheduled transfer on May 28, at around 11:15 am, just two days after the scheduled transfer date on May 30.

“Based on the intent of communication between relevant prison staff, CCHCS executives have decided to begin the transfer by the end of May 2020, regardless of the pressure or potential adverse effects placed on department staff. It seems they did, “said the Wesley Report.

“The transfer was made to mitigate the potential harm of COVID-19 to CIM patients and is based on a thoughtful risk analysis using scientific information available in May 2020 regarding the transmission of this new disease. “It was,” CDCR and CCHCS said in a joint statement.

“Acknowledging that there were some mistakes in the process of these transfers, both CCHCS and CDCR have since made appropriate changes to the patient’s behavior.”

The CDCR and CCHCS also said that there have been no transfer-related outbreaks since implementing new inmate transfer protocols such as increased testing and the use of quarantine space.

The Inspector General’s Office did not review the agency’s new forwarding protocol for the report.

According to the report, San Quentin suffered an outbreak that eventually deteriorated after the transfer due to its outdated infrastructure, including a rugged doorless cell that allows virus particles to move more freely within the prison. Insisted that.

Only two of the 67 prisoners transferred to Corcoran ended up with confirmed cases of the virus. This report is due to the more modern infrastructure of the prison and the robust cell doors that enabled more effective quarantine.

According to the CDCR date, 47,461 cases of coronavirus have been identified throughout the state prison system since the outbreak of the pandemic. Neely 2,300 cases are active and stored.

The CDCR also reported the deaths of 192 prisoners from the virus throughout the prison system and 11 deaths from prison staff due to the coronavirus as of 31 December.

“The painstaking task of the department of containing the virus in CCHCS and its prisons remains unfinished,” Wesley said.

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